1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of data processing. More specifically, the present invention is related to the rendering of display data.
2. Background Information
With advances in integrated circuit, microprocessor, networking and communication technologies, increasing number of devices, in particular, digital computing devices, are being networked together (wirelessly or via wire lines). As a result of this trend of increased connectivity, increasing number of client/server based and network dependent applications are being deployed. Examples of these client/server based and network dependent applications include but are not limited to, email, net based telephony, world wide web and various types of e-commerce.
Among the client/server based and network dependent applications, thin-client architecture, also known as web-client architecture, perhaps because of its “ease of implementation” on the client side, is especially popular. Typically, the architecture merely involves a “user-agent”, such as a Web browser or a WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) Browser, on the client side. There is no need for the client to have any application specific programs installed. Application specific logic are run on the server side, and the client just has to run the browser to render the content to displayed at a particular point in time (provided by the server or servers). Each collection instance of these content is often referred as a “page” or a “web page”. Typically, the browser retrieves for each page, a set of descriptions specifying the content to be displayed and their layout, and then the content themselves from the server or other servers. The descriptions are typically authored in a browser specific language, such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) for Web browser, HDML/WML (Handheld Device Markup Language or Wireless Markup Language) for WAP browser. The browser then renders the content on a display screen as specified by the retrieved descriptions, in the order the contents are received.
Often time, a user may be interested in only a portion of the page, e.g. in a log-in home page, where the user is just interested in getting the log-in “box” rendered, so the user can start the log-in process, or a user is interested in only a particular summary section of a customized home page (such as a stock summary section, a headline section, a sport section or a weather section, where the user can quickly take a look at the latest information on whatever the subject of interest may be (e.g. latest stock prices for a short list of stocks, latest headlines, latest sport scores, latest weather and so forth).
Under prior art browsers, a user has no control over the order in which the various sections of a page is displayed. If the section or sections of most interest happen to be displayed last or near last, that's just tough luck for the user. Thus, under the prior art, users are often frustrated, in waiting for the section or sections of interest to be displayed.
Accordingly, a more user friendly approach to rendering display content is desired.